General Fighting Game Glossary

Skullgirls Glossary

This list includes both Skullgirls specific terms, as well as general fighting game terms and how they're used within the context of Skullgirls

Term

Definition

360

A command grab with an input motion of a full circle, with the joystick hitting each cardinal direction. In Skullgirls, all 360 command grabs are supers with invulnerability.

Absolute guard

Defense mechanic that allows a player to temporarily block both highs and lows by pushblocking and switching guard direction. Abbreviated as 'AG'

Active

Period during an attack in which the attacking hitboxes are present. Another way to think of it is the period in which an attack can hit the opponent.

Air actions

Refers to whether a character is able to use their double jump, air dash, or other air movement options within the context of their time in the air.

Air dash

Air movement option which moves the character forward. The exact behavior of the airdash varies from character to character. In Skullgirls, not every character has an air dash.

Air throw

Universal move similar to a grounded throw, it will throw blocking opponents in the air, and can be throw teched. To be specific, it can be referred to as 'normal air throw'

Airdash cancel

Canceling an attack with an airdash. Abbreviated as 'ADC'

Alpha counter

Defense mechanic which allows a player to switch characters during blockstun or a burst. As the new character comes in, they will perform their assist attack. Referred to by the in-game tutorial as 'stunt double'

Anchor

The last character in a duo or trio team.

Anti-air throw

In Skullgirls, an attack that is unblockable during the rising portion of the opponent's jump. Also referred to as 'air unblockable' or 'while-rising unblockable'.

Armor

Attacks with armor will not get hit when attacked. These attacks have a specified number of hits of armor, which indicate how many hits can be negated this way before the next hit will inflict normal hitstun. Armored attacks can still get thrown, and in Skullgirls, sweep attacks will ignore armor. See also: 'hyper armor'

Assist

Team mechanic where a teammate will enter the screen, perform an attack, then exit. Reffered to by the in-game tutorial as 'ensemble attack'

Avery

The bird projectile from Peacock and Double's j.HK

Battery

A character that can effectively build meter

Beam

In Skullgirls, a type of projecile that will instantly cover its entire range and is active for a fixed amount of time.

Blockstop

The brief period of freeze for visual impact when an attack is blocked.

Blue bounce

One of the four classifications of knockdowns in Skullgirls, indicated by the blue effect when the character bounces off the ground. Blue bounces will allow the player to perform a ground tech. See also: soft knockdown, invulnerable soft knockdown.

Blue burst

A burst that completely whiffs, causing the recovery to be vulnerable. This is indicated by a blue effect surrounding the burst. See also: 'burst'

Burst alpha counter

An alpha counter performed during a burst

Burst bait

A setup which allows the opponent to burst, with the hope that the opponent will burst in such a way that is punishable. See also: 'blue burst'

Burst

An attack that can be done out of hitstun which hits for no damage and knocks the opponent away. Players can only burst when certain conditions are met as defined by the IPS and undizzy mechanics. Referred to by the in-game tutorial as 'infinity breaker'. See also: 'blue burst', 'gold burst', 'burst bait', 'burst alpha counter'

Cancel / Special cancel / Super cancel

Under certain conditions, a move can be interrupted early by inputting another move. Speical cancel refers to canceling into a special, and super canceling refers to canceling into a super. See also: 'chain'

Chain route

Describes which normals a character can chain into each other. See also: 'chain', 'magic series'

Chain

Canceling normals into other normals. See also: 'chain', magic series'

Chains backwards

These attacks can chain into a normal that is earlier in the chain route. Also referred to as 'reverse beat' or 'rebeat'.

Chains into self

These attacks can press the button again to chain into itself, sometimes with a unique follow up move.

Chicken blocking

Blocking attacks in the air, negating the need to block high / low mixups. See also: 'land cancel'

Chip damage

The amount of damage done by a special or super move on block. The damage is much less than if the attack hit.

Cinematic

A move that goes into a unique, lenghthy animation that interrupts normal gameplay

Combo stage

The way the infinite protection system divides up combos to determine whether buttons will become watched, or if the combo can trigger IPS. See also: 'IPS'

Command normals

A move that requires a certain direction to be held and single button press

Command throw

Throws done with a special move input. This typically implies that they cannot be throw teched like normal throws.

Corner carry

A combo that will carry the opponent all the way to the corner

Counter hit

In Skullgirls, a hit that occurs when the opponent is performing an attack, whether they get hit during the startup, active, or recovery frames. This causes them to flash red with a broken heart effect, and will subtract undizzy.

Cross under

A type of mixup where a player will dash under an airborne opponent and hit them on the other side.

Crossup

A type of mixup that hits the opponent on the other side, forcing a swtich of blocking direction

Crumple

A hit effect in Skullgirls that causes the opponent to fall down to the ground in a lengthy animation.

Damage scaling

When an attack only does a percentage of its base damage. In Skullgirls, the more hits in a combo, the higher the damage scaling. Some moves also scale the entire combo in addition to the former.

Dash block

Dashing, then immeidately holding back to block any attacks and safely dash forward

Dash jump

Dashing, then inputting jump, which will have the character jump further

Dead body combo

Continuing to combo a dead character in order to gain positioning

DHC

Swapping characters by performing a super, then canceling into a super from the next character in line. Referred to by the in-game tutorials as 'blockbuster sequel'. Short for 'delayed hyper cancel', a term borrowed from the Marvel vs Capcom series. See also: 'safe DHC'

Disjoint

An attack where a portion of hitboxes do not overlap with the hurtboxes

Double jump

Performing a jump while already in the air

Double snap

Hitting both the point character and an assist with a snapback in the corner, which will leave just the vulnerable assist. The player can then combo the assist until they're dead. Referred to by the in-game tutorial as 'double take'. See also: 'snapback'

DP

1. A move done as a reversal on wakeup / a move with invulnerable frames, making it ideal to use as a reversal.2. A dragon punch (623) motion.

DP assist

Any assist with invulnerable frames

Fireball

1. Synonymous with a projectile, usually one that travels horizontally across the screen.2. A quarter circle forward (236) motion.

Flight cancel

Canceling an attack with flight. Painwheel specific

George

Peacock's bomb projectiles

GGPO

The netcode which Skullgirls implements. Instead of introducing input delay to deal with latency, it will run the game like normal and 'rollback' the game to make corrections.

Gold burst

A burst that was hit, blocked, or met some other condition causing the recovery to be invulnerable and therefore safe. This is indicated by a gold effect surrounding the burst. See also: 'burst'

Grab

Synonymous with throw.

Grappler

A style of play that involves threatening the opponent with high damage throws.

Green bounce

One of the four classifications of knockdowns in Skullgirls, indicated by the green effect when the character bounces off the ground. Green bounces are simply when a move that causes red bounce is used as an assist, and will always allow a ground tech.

Green sparks

Green hitsparks that indicate a combo has triggered undizzy and the player in hitstun is allowed to burst.

Ground bounce

A hit effect where the opponent bounces off the floor. See also: 'yellow bounce'

Ground tech / Ground recovery

A defense mechanic that allows the opponent to roll left or right on knockdowns under certain conditions

Guard cancel

In general terms, a move that can be done during blockstun. In Skullgirls, it could either refer to a pushblock guard cancel (PBGC) or an alpha counter.

Happy birthday

A combo which hits both the a point and assist character. If the attacker can reach the corner, it will usually result in a double snap.

Hard knockdown

A hit effect where the opponent is forced to recover on the ground. This is the only type of knockdown in Skullgirls not associated with a colored bounce and will never allow the opponent to ground tech

Hatred guard

A character specific version of armor, exclusive to Painwheel, that will abosrb the damage taken and deal it back to the opponent

HCH

Shorthand for heavy counter hit, which is counter hitting with a HP or HK normal

High

A move that must be blocked standing. Also known as an 'overhead'

Hit grab

A move that can be blocked (is a strike) but has properties of throws, such as going into a unique animation sequence on hit and breaking armor

Hitbox

The area in which an attack can hit, represented by red boxes on the hitbox display.

Hitstop drop

An advanced technique which takes advantage of the fact that assists are not affected by super hitstop to uncombo the combo on the assist and deal much more damage, while still comboing the point character. See also: 'uncombo'

Hitstop

The brief period of freeze for visual impact when an attack hits. See also: 'super hitstop', 'blockstop'

Hurtbox

The area in which a character can be hit, represented by green boxes on the hitbox display.

Hyper Armor

An armored attack with no limits on how many times it can be hit and still negate attacks. It also cannot be broken by sweeps. Sometimes referred to as 'super armor', although not all super moves with armor have this property. See also: 'armor'

IAD lockout

The period of time in which an airdash cannot be preformed after jumping. The amount of time varies from character to character. See also: 'IAD'

IAD

Abbreviation for 'instant air dash', which means to perform an airdash as soon as possible after jumping

Incoming

Describes how after a character is killed, the next in line character enters from the side of the screen in the air. They can block like normal, but are suspect to incoming mixups.

Instant overhead

A jumping move that hits as the character is rising, allowing for a quick overhead.

Invulnerable / Invincible

A move which has a period of time where the character cannot be hit by any attacks. Some attacks are only invulnerable to specific types of moves. 'Fully invulnerable' refers to attacks that are invulnerable to all attacks. See also: 'reversal'

Invulnerable soft knockdown

A hit effect where the opponent is knocked down, can ground tech as soon as they hit the floor, and is invulnerable as they're hit by the attack. See also: 'blue bounce'

IPS

Abbreviation of 'infinite protection system'. System mechanic that allows the opponent to burst if a chain has been started with a move that has already been used, not counting moves used in the first chain. See also: 'combo stage'

Jump cancel

Canceling an attack with a jump. Refers either to the super jump cancel property of launchers, or Robo-Fortune's unique ability to double jump cancel her air normals and air throw

Kara

Meaning "empty" in Japanese, kara typically refers to a move that starts but gets cancelled into another move before active frames. A "kara cancel" typically enhances the range of a throw or special move by canceling the first frames of start up of specific move that will move the character forward. In Skullgirls, this is done in two ways. The most common is using the ability to special cancel from normals on whiff. The other way, and the only way to kara a normal throw, is to use the LP+LK input leniency and slightly delay the button presses, such that an attack will come out for a few frames before the throw.

Knockdown

A hit effect that forces the opponent to the ground and go through an invulnerable wakeup animation. In Skullgirls, there are different types of knockdowns (red/blue/yellow bounces) and many knockdowns can be ground teched.

Land cancel

Blocking an attack in the air with the intent that the player will land on the ground, negating any blockstun from the air attack. See also: 'chicken block'

Launcher

An attack which sends the opponent into the air and allows for a super jump cancel on hit

Lockout

A period of time which assists cannot be called and tags and DHCs cannot be performed

Low profile

An attack with very short hurtboxes, allowing the character to avoid some moves by going under them

Low

An attack that must be blocked crouching

Macro

Mapping multiple inputs to one button

Magic series

Describes which normals a character can chain together, following the L > M > H format. See also: 'chain'

Mashing

Preemptively inputting a reversal repeatedly during a combo in case the attacker attempts a reset or drops their combo

Meaty

1. Attacking an opponent the moment they wake up2. Attacking an opponent on wakeup, specifically with the latter portion of an attack's active frames, providing better frame advantage for the attacker

Meter scaling

When an attack only grants a percentage of its base meter gain to the player. In Skullgirls, the more hits in a combo, the less meter the atacker will get and the more meter the opponent will get.

Meter

A resource gained during gamplay and is spent on super moves, DHCs, snapbacks, or alpha counters

Mid

1. An attack that can be blocked crouching or standing2. The middle character on a trio team.

Minimum scaling

A rule that ensures some moves cannot be scaled more than a certain percentage, even when the damage scaling would scale it more under normal conditions

Normals

The set of moves that every character has, performed by pressing a single attack button while either standing, crouching, or jumping

Okizeme

Attacking an opponent as they wake up. Often shortened to 'oki'.

OTG

The method of continuing a combo after the opponent bounces off the ground with a red bounce. This can only be done once per combo. OTG also refers to whether a combo has used an off the ground hit yet or not. See also: 'red bounce', 'blue bounce'

PBGC

A defense mechanic in Skullgirls that allows players to reduce their overall blockstun via pushblocking, and typically perform a reversal action. A successful PBGC will have the player character flash green.

Perfect

Winning a game without taking a single point of damage

Pixie

A character archetype with short range but good movement and mixups

Point

1. The first character on a duo or trio team2. The current character in the player's control on a duo or trio team

Projectile

A classification of attacks that describes attacks physically separate from the character

Pushblock

A defense mechanic which allows the defender to push the attacker away while in blockstun. Referred to by the in-game tutorial as 'reaction shot'

Ratio

Describes bonuses to life and damage given by team size selection

Recovery

1. The amount of time a move has after the active frames to have the character return to a neutral state2. The moment when a character just recovered from hitstun or blockstun

Red bounce

One of the four classifications of knockdowns in Skullgirls, indicated by the red effect when the character bounces off the ground. Red bounces will not allow the character to perform a ground tech. They also provide the opportunity for the attacker to hit the opponent OTG. If OTG has already been used in a combo and a red bounce occurs, it will become a blue bounce. See also: 'knockdown', 'sliding knockdown'

Red health

The portion of damage taken that is left as red health. Red health has the potential to be recovered if the character is not in play.

Red sparks

Red hitsparks that indicate a combo has triggered IPS and the player in hitstun is allowed to burst.

Rejump

Performing an air combo, then landing and jumping again to continue the combo in the air

Reset

A strategy core to maintaining offense in Skullgirls. It involves the attacker intentionally dropping their combo and performing a quick mixup

Restand

When a character in hitstun in the air lands on the ground and the hitstun is carried over once they land. Restands are a very useful technique for combos and resets.

Reversal

Performing a move immediately once the character has actions available after a period of being knocked down, blockstun, or hitstun. Typically, an invulnerable move is most useful to use in this situation, since the attacker will usually have an advantage over the opponent. For this reason, some moves are referred to as 'reversals' and used interchangeably with 'invulnerable'

Runaway

A style of play that involves running away from the opponent and not letting them close in

Safe DHC

Using a DHC to make a super safe, such as DHCing into a low recovery super, or into a super that will keep the opponent in blockstun. This is a very strong tactic as it can allow reversals to be done with much less risk.

Safe

Any attack that cannot be punished, given the context of the situation

Sekhmet

Eliza's skeleton which she can summon to attack

Sliding knockdown

A type of knockdown that does not allow the opponent to ground tech if the attacker chooses not to use OTG. See also: 'red bounce'

Snapback

A universal attack that will swap out the opponent's team members on hit. Often shortened to 'snap'. Referred to by the in-game tutorial as 'outtake'

Soft Knockdown

A type of knockdown that will always allow the opponent to use a ground tech. See also: 'blue bounce'

Big Band's unique mechanic that gives some of his moves much more hitstun and hitstop once per combo

Specials

A move performed using a motion and single attack button or throw. These moves are typically more unique in the utility they provide than normal moves

Stagger

A hit effect which puts the opponent into a dizzied state with a long duration. The state is similar to normal hitstun, except that they can still tech throws. The opponent can shake out of a stagger to reduce the total stagger time.

Startup

The time it takes for an attack to perform its active frames after its executed

Strike

A classification of moves that will put the opponent into hitstun on hit and into blockstun on block. In other words, not a throw. Also referred to as 'hit'

Suki cancel

A technique where a player does a launcher attack where the opponent blocks it but their assist gets hit, allowing a super jump cancel even though the point character blocked it

Super hitstop

In Skullgirls, when a super flash occurs, some hitstop is applied only to the opponent. Since it is effectively the same, it is usually just referred to as 'hitstop' but is also sometimes called 'super hitstop' or 'superstop' to be specific.

Super jump

A type of jump that reachers a greater height than a normal jump, performed by tapping down quickly before jumping

Supers

An attack performed with a motion and two attack buttons, costs meter, and includes a super flash at some point. Referred to by the in-game tutorial as 'blockbuster'

Sweep

An attack that ignores armor. Every c.HK attack (c.MK for Robo-Fortune) has this property.

Tag

Switching characters using their unique tag attacks. Sometimes referred to as 'hard tag' if done in a risky manner such as outside of a combo

Taunt

A move designed to taunt or mock the opponent, typically due to the animation and / or the move lacking any practical purpose. Some taunts will even provide small benefits to the opponent, or hit for negligible damage. Despite the name, a few character's taunts are beneficial or even integral to their game plan, removing the taunting stigma from the move. Every character in Skullgirls has one taunt, each inputted like a command super (a series of button and input directions).

Tears

Parasoul's mine projectiles

Tech

1. Shorthand for throw tech2. Shorthand for ground tech / ground recovery3. Any piece of game knowledge such as combos or resets, shorthand for 'technology' or 'technique'

Throw

1. A universal attack that will beat blocking opponents on the ground and can be throw teched. To be specific, it can be referred to as 'normal throw'2. Any attack with throw properties

ToD

Abbreviation of 'touch of death'. A combo which ensures the opponent will die, even if they're hit at full health

Turtling

A style of play which minimizes risk, taking offense only when it is safe, and scoring hits with defensive moves and techniques

Dropping the combo on an assist to reset the damage scaling. Even though the combo is dropped, the assist is defenseless and cannot block subsequent attacks

Undizzy / Drama

The mechanic in Skullgirls which limits combo length, indicated by the green bar under each player's health bars. Undizzy will accumulate as a combo goes on, and the opponent can burst if undizzy if the attacker triggers undizzy by starting a new chain while the bar is full.

Wakeup

Refers to the moment after a knockdown when a character completes their invulnerable 'getting up' animation and becomes vulnerable again. Typically the attacker has a huge advantage in this situation and can set up okizeme.

Wall bounce

A hit effect where the opponent bounces off the wall and back towards the attacker. See also: 'yellow bounce'

Wall splat

A hit effect where the opponent bounces off the wall and falls straight downwards to the floor. See also: 'yellow bounce'

Whiff

When an attack misses completely and is neither hit nor blocked

Yellow bounce

One of the four classifications of knockdowns in Skullgirls, indicated by the yellow effect when the character bounces off the wall or ground. Yellow bounces will simply let the opponent fall to the floor, and when they do it will be a knockdown (red bounce). There are no limits on how many yellow bounces can occur in a combo. See also: 'ground bounce', 'wall bounce', 'wall splat'

Zoning

A style of play which involves denying the opponent to commit to using certain areas of the screen

Other Terms

Terms that are common use in other fighting games that refer to similar concepts in Skullgirls under a different name

Term

Definition

Advancing Guard

Marvel vs Capcom term for pushblock

Break

Term from other fighting games for a throw tech.

Breaker

An an attack that can execute during hit stun and interrupt an opponent's combo in progress. These techniques are analogous to a burst in Skullgirls. Originally used in Killer Instinct's "C-C-Combo Breaker!" Sometimes seen in Mortal Kombat.

Crossover Counter

Marvel vs Capcom term for a tag / counter attack technique similar to an alpha counter in Skullgirls.

Dead Angle

Guilty Gear term, an attack where the defending player can attack during block stun at the cost of some tension. This technique is functionally similar to an alpha counter in Skullgirls.

Double Over Stun

3D fighting game term for a stun that causes the opponent to fall to the ground slowly, vulnerable to further attacks. These are similar to a crumple in Skullgirls.

Gatling

Guilty Gear term for 'chain'

Hyper Combo

Marvel vs Capcom term for a super move.

Square jump

Marvel vs Capcom term for a movement very similar to an IAD.

Striker

King of Fighters term for a mechanic similar to an assists.

Tech Hit

Vampire Savior term for pushblock.

Wire

King of Fighters term for an attack that creates an effect very similar to a wall bounce.